The AFA already rings changes with La Albiceleste and the Primera is next

Reforms are afoot to transform a bloated, confusing league into something resembling normality anywhere else. But change won’t be easy

If a week is a long time in politics, or so the phrase goes, then sometimes in Argentine football it feels like a lifetime. It’s been less than four months since Claudio ‘Chiqui’ Tapia was elected as the new president of the Argentine Football Association (AFA) and already the national side and the domestic leagues are undergoing serious change.

Edgardo Bauza was the first victim of this, as Tapia and his new look AFA swiftly decided to give El Patón the boot and while the well-publicised pursuit of Jorge Sampaoli took an eternity, Chiqui got his man.

This first order of business was undertaken to the backdrop of institutional and financial chaos; the parting gift of deceased former president Julio Grondona, whose sudden death three-years-ago had left a vacuum in the AFA, but the boost of appointing Sampaoli was a mere drop in the ocean when it came to Argentine football’s problems.

While Lionel Messi has papered over the cracks at senior level, dragging his teammates to three major finals, the state of disrepair is clear at youth level. The glory days of José Pékerman and co, which yielded five under-20 World Cups in twelve years, has given way to a decade of neglect and failure.